Top Posts of 2018 #10 “How the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor Roles Work Together”

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Top Posts of 2018 #10 “How the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor Roles Work Together”

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

For the next couple of days I’m going to be counting down the top 10 posts from 2017 here on Helping Churches Make Vision Real. These are the posts that generated the most traffic, comments, and were the most shared on social media. The most popular topics this year had to do with emotionally intelligent leaders, church finances, church growth, indicators of decline, and becoming an outsider focused church.

This first post as we count down the top 10 has to do with the relationship between the Lead and Executive Pastor. I’m frequently asked how the relationship works, what a Lead Pastor should be looking for in a good XP. This post should help.

The relationship between the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor can make or break a church staff team and has profound impact upon the overall ministry of the church. Get this right and you’ll end up getting a lot right. Get it wrong, and well, it’s going to be tough sledding.

There are some basic no brainer things that make a great Lead and Executive Pastor partnership and of course trust is at the foundation of it.

You can’t allow triangulation; the Lead and Executive Pastor need to stay connected and on the same page. I’d recommend a weekly touch base meeting to help solve this.
You can’t have a “good cop / bad cop” situation. You don’t want the staff to love the Lead Pastor and fear the Executive Pastor. Executive Pastors remember that fear doesn’t make people want to follow you. On the other side of the coin, Lead Pastors can’t delegate all of the tough decisions and execution to the Executive, the church needs your leadership not just your direction.
A better analogy for a healthy partnership between a Lead and Executive Pastor is more like a mom and a dad leading a family together through mutual submission to one another. Leading in their area of brilliance and submitting in their areas of weakness.
The Executive Pastor needs to support the Lead Pastor publicly and when needed appropriately challenge them privately.

And if you’ve ever wondered what the basic lanes are that the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor should be running in here are 4 things that each role can’t delegate away:

There are 4 Things the Lead Pastor can’t Delegate

Leadership
Teaching
Vision
Culture

There are 4 Things the Executive Pastor can’t Delegate

Strategy
Execution
Leading the Sr. Leadership Team
Daily Train, Develop & Coach the Culture

Posted in Leadership

How the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor roles Work Together

Sunday, July 29, 2018

There are some basic no brainer things that make a great Lead and Executive Pastor partnership and of course trust is at the foundation of it.

You can’t allow triangulation; the Lead and Executive Pastor need to stay connected and on the same page. I’d recommend a weekly touch base meeting to help solve this.
You can’t have a “good cop / bad cop” situation. You don’t want the staff to love the Lead Pastor and fear the Executive Pastor. Executive Pastors remember that fear doesn’t make people want to follow you. On the other side of the coin, Lead Pastors can’t delegate all of the tough decisions and execution to the Executive, the church needs your leadership not just your direction.
A better analogy for a healthy partnership between a Lead and Executive Pastor is more like a mom and a dad leading a family together through mutual submission to one another. Leading in their area of brilliance and submitting in their areas of weakness.
The Executive Pastor needs to support the Lead Pastor publicly and when needed appropriately challenge them privately.

And if you’ve ever wondered what the basic lanes are that the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor should be running in here are 4 things that each role can’t delegate away:

There are 4 Things the Lead Pastor can’t Delegate

Leadership
Teaching
Vision
Culture

There are 4 Things the Executive Pastor can’t Delegate

Strategy
Execution
Leading the Sr. Leadership Team
Daily Train, Develop & Coach the Culture

Posted in Leadership

How to Change the Results at your Church Before they Happen

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Management expert Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured gets improved.” In other words, if you can define how things have performed in the past and define your current reality then you should be able to make changes and improve future results. To a large extent this is true, but not always.

Churches measure what happened all the time. We measure what the attendance at last week’s worship services was, we measure what the offering was, we measure how many people were in groups last week, how many people served last week, and so on the list goes. The tough thing is you can’t change what just happened at your church last week.

Most of the key metrics we look at are all about what has already happened. But what if there were things that we could measure that were indicators of future performance?

1. Follow-Up Rate

Every week your church has guests (at least I hope you do). But do you know if they were followed up on and how quickly? Do you know if they were called, emailed, texted, if a letter was sent, etc. (whatever your follow-up process is)? Measuring the follow-up rate each week on the percentage of “closed” contacts will put a behavioral spotlight and emphasis not only on guests but also helping people get and stay connected at your church.

2. Engagement Rate

Again, you probably already know the metrics on group involvement, volunteers, giving, and other steps people take in their discipleship process at your church. But do you know how long it takes for the average person at your church to move from a guest (the first time you knew they were there), to when they joined a group, started volunteering, or gave for the first time? Measuring those rates will help you become much more proactive and change the score before it happens.

What else could you measure at your church that would be an indicator of future success and what is going to happen instead of simply measuring what has already happened? I’d love to hear your input, leave a comment!

Posted in Leadership

Where there’s a Huddle there’s a Team

Sunday, April 3, 2016

How do you know if the volunteer teams at your church are really working? I don’t mean are they getting stuff done and meeting objectives, I mean are they developing people. After all the point of building volunteer teams at your church isn’t just to use people to accomplish objectives but rather to create opportunities and relationships to develop people.

Team huddles are one of the most overlooked opportunities by many church staff, and yet they are one of the easiest tactics to implement and they bear a disproportionate amount of fruit.

Simply put where there’s a team there’s a huddle. No huddle…no team. So go looking for huddles at your church. If you don’t see any you may be using people instead of developing them.

Team huddles are evidence of…

Leadership

When you see a team huddle that means someone is leading. Someone is getting the team together and calling the plays.

Planning

When you see a team huddle you can rest assured that someone is doing some planning. They’re sharing that plan with the team and helping everyone know how they’re going to accomplish what they’re going to accomplish that day.

Coordination

When you see a team huddle you can know that people are working together in a coordinated fashion. Yes someone has planed the plays and called the plays but it takes everyone blocking the right scheme, picking up their individual assignments, running the right routes, and putting the ball where it needs to go at the right time for the team to win. That’s called coordination.

Development

You know people are being developed when you see a team huddle. Tasks are being delegated and people are being empowerment to make decisions. Responsibility is being shared and young growing leaders are learning to build trust.

Encouragement

You can know that people are being encouraged when you see team huddles. People are celebrating what was accomplished on the last play and individuals on the team are being called out and honored for doing a great job.

If your church isn’t using team huddles try having each volunteer team start and end with a huddle using the tactics above. Try it for 30 days…you may be surprised by the results.

Posted in Leadership, Volunteers

New Staff Search: A Large Church in Phoenix is looking for a new Lead Pastor

Sunday, May 10, 2015

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search! I’m helping Harvest Community Church as they begin the search for their new Lead Pastor. Harvest was planted in August of 2009 and originally met in a movie theater. They later moved to Skyline High School for a period of time before settling into a permanent facility in 2012. Today, just 5 years in existence, they average more than 650 people in weekend attendance! Located just one mile north of a new large residential community and a mile off of the 202 highway, Harvest is positioned for growth!

Harvest Community Church sincerely desires to be a Biblical community of people that seeks God’s leading for their lives. They believe this happens best when we connect ourselves to God, His purpose, and others. Harvest exists to connect people to God and to give them an increasingly accurate view of God while moving them to be wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ. Simply put, Harvest wants to help people connect with Jesus, grow in Jesus, and go for Jesus.

Lee Stephenson, the founding pastor, is leaving Harvest Community Church in a place of health as he has transitioned to be the next Executive Director of Church Planting for Converge Worldwide. The location, finances, growth, mission, and staff team are all great reasons that make this a very attractive opportunity for interested candidates. Harvest is affiliated with Converge Worldwide, “A movement of churches working together to start and strengthen more churches.”

Located in Southeast Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, AZ, Harvest is set against the beautiful backdrop of the Superstition Mountains. The facility is located in a new and growing community. The area boasts beautiful outdoor living including biking, hiking, equestrian trails and other recreational activities. The community is also convenient to shopping, golfing, and resorts. With its proximity to Phoenix, this opportunity provides all the benefits of small town living with the appeal and amenities that come from being close to a major city.

The next Lead Pastor at Harvest Community Church will be a gifted and dynamic communicator of God’s Word. They will highly value both strong biblical exposition as well as practical application in their teaching. They will have a passion and ability to make the truths of the scripture relevant to those exploring the faith, as well as challenging devoted followers of Jesus, leading people to experience and follow Jesus. They will have received a formal biblical education that has prepared them for pastoral ministry (seminary is preferred), have a clear spiritual calling to the role of Lead Pastor, and meet the biblical qualification for eldership expressed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Multi-site and/or church-planting experience is a plus. In addition, they will have had 10+ years of church leadership experience with relevant experience in a large church (1,000+). The next Lead Pastor at Harvest will not only be an excellent communicator of God’s Word but also pastor the congregation and cast inspirational and actionable vision for the future. They will be a high capacity leader with a proven track record of developing others and have the ability to work with the high capacity lay and staff leaders on the team.

Interested parties should submit their resume here via email.

Posted in Staffing

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